AJL25037 Decadent Literature and Its Reception in the Late Victorian Period

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2024
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 6 credit(s). Recommended Type of Completion: zk (examination). Other types of completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
doc. Michael Matthew Kaylor, PhD. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. PhDr. Jana Chamonikolasová, Ph.D.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Supplier department: Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Tue 14:00–15:40 G33, except Mon 18. 11. to Sun 24. 11.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 18 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 10/18, only registered: 0/18
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 20 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
On various aesthetic, social, and intellectual levels, Decadence challenged many of the assumptions of the dominant society during the Victorian and Edwardian periods, and this course will accentuate those dynamics through close readings of a number of representative English texts, namely The Renaissance by Walter Pater; the poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne and of Lord Alfred Douglas; “The Portrait of Mr. W. H.” and “Pen, Pencil and Poison” by Oscar Wilde; The Turn of the Screw and “The Pupil” by Henry James; a serialized novel from the pornographic magazine The Pearl; the “gentleman’s diary” My Secret Life by Walter; The Garden God by Forrest Reid; and a number of other works on similar themes. It will also consider the artworks of Simeon Solomon and Aubrey Beardsley.
At the end of the course, students will be able to critically evaluate the issues, textual and cultural, surrounding English Decadence, discuss the writing of others with sensitivity and appreciation, and have a greater understanding of the contexts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Syllabus
  • Week 1: Introduction. Week 2: The Decadent Tone: “Winckelmann” and “Conclusion,” both from The Renaissance by Walter Pater. Week 3: The Pleasures of the Flesh: “Dolores” by Algernon Charles Swinburne and My Secret Life by “Walter”. Week 4: The Purely Pornographic: The Sub-Umbra, from the magazine The Pearl. Week 5: Decadent Portraiture: “The Portrait of Mr. W. H.” and “Pen, Pencil and Poison,” both by Oscar Wilde. Week 6: Those Dangerous Boys: Various poems by Lord Alfred Douglas, “The Priest and the Acolyte” by Francis Bloxam, and The Chameleon. Week 7: The Decadent Eye: Simeon Solomon and Aubrey Beardsley. Week 8: Corrupting Innocence: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Week 9: Innocents Corrupting: The Turn of the Screw and “The Pupil,” both by Henry James. Week 10: The Decadent Arcadia: The Garden God and “Pan’s Pupil,” both by Forrest Reid. Week 11: The Decadent Panic: “The Story of a Panic,” “The Classical Annex,” and “The Torque,” all by E. M. Forster. Week 12: Wilde, a film directed by Brian Gilbert (1997). Week 13: Student paper topics and Closure.
Literature
  • Douglas, Lord Alfred, (Various poems after 1890), in Caspar Wintermans, Alfred Douglas: A Poet’s Life and His Finest Work (London: Peter Owen, Ltd., 2007)
  • Cruise, Colin, Love Revealed: Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites (London: Merrell, 2005)
  • Wilde, Oscar, “Pen, Pencil and Poison: A Study,” Fortnightly Review, Vol. 45 (August 1889), pp. 41-54
  • James, Henry, The Turn of the Screw (1898), in Henry James: Complete Stories: 1892-1898 (New York: Library of America, 1996), pp. 635-740
  • Forster, E. M., “The Torque” (after 1903, perhaps written as late as 1958; posthumously published), in The Life to Come and Other Stories (London: E. Arnold, 1972), pp. 151-65
  • Forster, E. M., “The Story of a Panic” (1904), in The Celestial Omnibus and Other Stories (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1911), pp. 1-29
  • Forster, E. M., “The Classical Annex” (after 1903, perhaps written as late as 1930-31; posthumously published), in The Life to Come and Other Stories (London: E. Arnold, 1972), pp. 146-50
  • Reid, Forrest, The Garden God: A Tale of Two Boys (1905), edited with foreword, intro. and notes by Michael Matthew Kaylor (Kansas City, MO: Valancourt Books, 2007) (“Pan’s Pupil” (1905) appears as Appendix One)
  • Pater, Walter, “Winckelmann” (1867), The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry, Library edition (London: Macmillan, 1910)., pp. 177-232
  • “Simeon Solomon Research Archive,” at www.simeonsolomon.org
  • Bloxam, Francis, “The Priest and the Acolyte,” originally published in The Chameleon: A Bazaar of Dangerous and Smiling Chances (an Oxford student periodical), Issue 1 (Its only issue) (December 1894), reprinted in Brian Reade, ed., Sexual Heretics: Male
  • Pater, Walter, “Conclusion” (1868) to The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry, Library edition (London: Macmillan, 1910), pp. 233-39
  • Swinburne, Algernon Charles, “Dolores,” in Poems and Ballads, First Series. The Poems of Algernon Charles Swinburne, 6 vols. (London: Chatto, 1904) I, pp. 154-68
  • “Walter,” My Secret Life, 11 vols. (first published in Amsterdam, 1888-94), available in its entirety at www.my-secret-life.com
  • “Aubrey Beardsley Art,” at beardsley.artpassions.net
  • Wilde, Oscar, “The Portrait of Mr. W. H.” (1889), in Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Glasgow: Harper Collins, 1994), pp. 302-50
  • Anonymous, The Sub-Umbra, or Sport Among the She-Noodles, a novel serialized in The Pearl: A Journal of Facetiæ and Voluptuous Reading (London: Published by William Lazenby, 1879-81), reprinted by Ballantine Books of New York, 1968 (pp. 2-6, 37-42, 73-77
  • James, Henry, “The Pupil” (1892), in Henry James: Complete Stories: 1884-1891 (New York: Library of America, 1999), pp. 714-58
Teaching methods
Seminars, 1½ hours per week.
Assessment methods
Attendance will follow whatever is officially established by Department policy. Class participation is a must. This course will be comprised of 45-minute lectures followed by 45-minute discussions, and all materials covered are provided in the ELF system as Adobe Acrobat PDF files. An academic essay will serve as the only graded assignment. This essay (2,000 words, typed, double-spaced) must include a close reading of one or more passages from one of the texts covered during this course; however, the passage (or passages) given a close reading must be different from the passages covered during the lessons (another reason why attendance is necessary).
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught only once.
Information on course enrolment limitations: Předmět si nemohou zapsat studenti Bc. studia AJ
Teacher's information
http://www.phil.muni.cz/elf/course/view.php?id=2173
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